Looking Like a Leader,
Barack Obama in the Nemes Headdress
January 31, 2008


(From journal entry about picture process:
The Arizona primary is a week away, so it was time to get the vote-by-mail ballot ready. I had no clue as to who to pick for potential president. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton both seemed vaguely promising. "Change", they both promise, but what kind of change?

Each time I see Obama on the TV, I envision him with the Nemes headdress of the ancient Egyptian rulers. There is just something about his features that suggest he could wear one very well:


I found a photo I like from his Flicker site and a photo of a nemes headdress positioned about the same angle as his head.

There was a great deal of adjustment from the initial pen drawing to the final result. I'd gotten the lappets all uneven, so I evened them digitally. The journal records the process.

Julia said, upon seeing my finished result, "Now you'll have to draw one of Hillary, too!" I suppose I can just reuse the headdress, and put her face in the middle, also resizing for her smaller ear. Maybe I'll do that this weekend.

Later, she said, "Maybe Hillary would look good in Athena's helmet. And you could do John McCain in a Lorenzo Medici Florentine hat! Each could have their own distinctive hat."

Note of January 20, 2009
On this historic day, when people all over the world have watched at least excerpts of Obama's swearing in, we know the nemes headdress is very appropriate for him!